Two Heads

A woman in the northern province of Liaoning gave birth earlier this month to a boy with two heads, according to the Canton Yangcheng newspaper. Its report said the heads are of normal size, and the heads and body are well formed. The newspaper did not give a prognosis. The mother is in good health, and there were no indications of any abnormality during the pregnancy, it said.

SANFORD - Two men were ordered to prison following plea agreements Monday because they showed up in Seminole County, lured here by Craigslist ads that promised them sex with a 14-year-old girl. Terry John Whippie, 50, a Tarpon Springs taxi driver, agreed to a 3 1/2 year plea deal and Matthew Ryan Cubberly, 26, an unemployed man from Kissimmee, agreed to 1 1/2 years in prison. Both men fell victim to a sex sting by deputies in several Central Florida counties, including Seminole, Orange and Marion, who pretended they are the parents of a 14-year-old girl and offered her for sex in a Craigslist ad. Whippie was arrested Jan. 9 when he traveled to Oviedo to have sex with the girl, according to his arrest report.

In the mystifying world of video sales pitches and VCR specifications, there's a lot of talk about heads, usually centering on how many you need. Back in the early days of VCR ownership, nobody was counting because all consumer units had two heads. These days you have a choice of two, three, four or even five. Aren't two good enough anymore?The standard issue for video heads is two, mounted opposite each other on a drum that is part of the VCR's tape-handling mechanism. The drum is a hockey puck-shaped cylinder and can readily be identified when the cassette hatch is opened.

A Lake County charter school for troubled teens will still be getting money to keep its doors open in August despite a $986,378 dispute over faulty attendance keeping. Lake County School Board members say they want to give Alee Academy charter school about $23,000 in capital money as well as future school operating cash but will withhold about $198,157 of student funding until the close of an unfavorable state audit. A state audit showed the school couldn't prove its 283 students attended classes during two routine head counts throughout the 2011-12 school year - which could mean the district and charter would be forced to pay back up to $986,378 in funding received for those students.

TANJORE RANGANATHAN, 62, a professional performer of South Indian music and a longtime artist-in-residence at Wesleyan University, died Monday. Ranganathan was renowned for his playing of a barrel-shaped drum with two heads.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- A 14-year-old girl in southeastern Brazil gave birth to a boy with two heads, doctors and media said. The child, weighing 7.7 pounds, was born by Caesarean section on Tuesday in the town of Ataleia, about 430 miles northeast of Rio, the Globo TV network reported on Wednesday. Doctors at Clinics Hospital in Belo Horizonte found that the boy had one heart, one liver and one set of lungs, but two heads, two spines and two esophagi, Globo said.

HANOI, Vietnam - A girl with two heads has been born in a southern Vietnamese province, and medical staff said Thursday that she was healthy and doing well. The baby, which weighed 8.36 pounds at birth Monday, has two heads, two hearts and two spines, but one body with a single liver and one set of lungs, medical staff from Tien Giang provincial hospital said. A photograph and report naming the mother were published Thursday in the official Tuoi Tre - ``Youth'' - newspaper.

BABY WITH TWO HEADS. A woman has given birth to a baby with two heads, her doctor said Saturday. Dr. Mariano Iaccarino said 38-year-old Immacolata Izzo's daughter weighed more than 8 pounds and had two perfectly formed heads, two sets of lungs and three arms. He said the baby was relatively healthy but could not say how long it would live. There probably was a dysfunction in the fertilized egg which, if it had progressed normally, would have resulted in twins, he added.

A baby boy with two heads, two hearts, two stomachs, two spinal columns and three lungs has died of complications from a respiratory ailment. He was delivered April 28 by Caesarean section and was baptized with two names. The child underwent surgery for a hernia last month.

2-HEADED BABY BORN. A 21-year-old South African woman has given birth to a two-headed girl, hospital officials announced Sunday. ''This is not a case of Siamese twins,'' said Dr. Marie Potgieter of Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. ''The child definitely has two heads and only one body. That's all we want to say at this stage.'' Potgieter declined to give the weight of the child. She also refused to release the names of the parents, saying the hospital would provide additional details today.

Thunder and Lightning will be visiting Orlando on Friday. No, we're not talking about the storm system that has decided to hover over Central Florida for the past two days. But there will be two other visitors with that moniker. UCF is expecting unofficial visits from Tampa Bay Tech WR Richard Benjamin and Seffner Armwood WR Alvin Bailey on Friday. Thunder and Lightning is what UCF's coaching staff has dubbed the duo. Bailey — Lightning — was on campus last Saturday for UCF's 7-on-7 tournament.

The magic number was 191. That's how many yards Indianapolis gained on the ground in Super Bowl XLI. It was the most surrendered by Chicago's defense and the second-most gained this season by the Colts, trailing the 237 they put up against Philadelphia Nov. 26. Backup RB Dominic Rhodes ran for 113 yards, starter Joseph Addai 77. "It took us 16 games to figure out it was better for Joe to start and Dom to come off the bench," Colts QB Peyton Manning said....

Nails are not interchangeable. There are general-purpose nails used primarily in woodworking, and specialty nails used with concrete and masonry. Here's a guide: A glossary: Common nails are thick and heavy-duty, with large flat heads, and are used in framing carpentry and other rough work. Finish nails are used to fasten trim and cabinets, when you don't want the heads to show; carpenters put a steel tool called a nailset into the nail's cupped head to hammer the head below the surface of the wood.

LOS ANGELES -- Wildfires stoked by winds and high temperatures burned out of control in the San Bernardino mountains, triggering firestorms that destroyed more than 200 homes and threatened 1,000 more in foothill suburbs. The flames forced the evacuation of thousands of residents from San Bernardino to Rancho Cucamonga. Stoked by Santa Ana winds that knocked firefighters off their feet and grounded water-dropping helicopters and airplanes, the fires spread across more than 20,000 acres and raised a ceiling of thick black smoke that stretched for miles.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- A 14-year-old girl in southeastern Brazil gave birth to a boy with two heads, doctors and media said. The child, weighing 7.7 pounds, was born by Caesarean section on Tuesday in the town of Ataleia, about 430 miles northeast of Rio, the Globo TV network reported on Wednesday. Doctors at Clinics Hospital in Belo Horizonte found that the boy had one heart, one liver and one set of lungs, but two heads, two spines and two esophagi, Globo said.

DAVIE - Talk from the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills entering tonight's game at Pro Player Stadium was as sweet as a box of Flutie Flakes doused with extra sugar.There was no pregame smack spewed, as there was last season when Dolphins cornerback Sam Madison called Doug Flutie a ``little short dude'' after the Bills' quarterback complained about the aggressive bump coverage his receivers were going to face in a wild-card matchup. And no destruction of a box of Flutie Flakes, a cereal created to raise money for Flutie's autism foundation, as Dolphins Coach Jimmy Johnson did after the 24-17 victory over the Bills.

Doctors Monday said the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster was probably responsible for the birth of a two-headed baby in the former Soviet republic of Moldova. Doctors at the maternity hospital in Kishinyov said the girl was born Aug. 18 with two heads, two hearts, two sets of lungs and two spinal cords, although she had only one set of limbs. The mother previously had given birth to three normal children. Her doctors said it was Moldova's worst mutation linked to the radiation from the explosion at Chernobyl in neighboring Ukraine.

Q. Do VCRs need an electrician to wire them professionally or are the enclosed instructions sufficient? Also, I want a simple VCR that will play prerecorded tapes and perhaps record an occasional TV program. Should I buy a cheap two-head $199 model from a discount house or go for a more expensive four-head model?A. Some people may find wiring their own VCR too great of a challenge. However, there's little need to call in a technician. Most people have neighbors who can help figure it out. Virtually any teen-ager can lend a hand.

SARASOTA - Even 40-mile-per-hour winds couldn't knock the Dr. Phillips' boys golf team off course Wednesday.The Panthers recorded an 18-hole score of 300 and lead by two shots at the halfway point of the Class 6A state tournament at Bent Tree Country Club.``I'm very pleased with this, especially considering the weather conditions,'' said Dr. Phillips Coach Bob Hunt. ``This is the best start we've had here in five years.''Patrick Norris and Will Lloyd both carded 73s, Shaun York shot 75 and Jimmy Cohen added 79 for Dr. Phillips, which is shooting for its fourth boys golf title in the '90s.

By Juliet Macur and Charean Williams of The Sentinel Staff, November 15, 1998

JACKSONVILLE - Every time the thought of playing in the Super Bowl pops into his head, Jacksonville running back Fred Taylor tries to shoo it away.``Sometimes, you find yourself looking forward to it, but you just got to fight it and concentrate on the next game,'' said Taylor, a rookie from the University of Florida. ``It's cool to think about it, but, sometimes, you can lose your focus by thinking about it too much.''After all the hype about the Jaguars being good enough to go the Super Bowl this year, it's no wonder Taylor has trouble fighting off daydreams.